We  hope  to  see  the  stimulus  of  that  new  day  draw  all 
America,  the  republics  of  both  continents,  on  to  a  new  life 
and  energy  and  initiative  in  the  great  affairs  of  peace.  We 
are  Americans  for  Big  America,  and  rejoice  to  look  forward 
to  the  days  in  which  America  shall  strive  to  stir  the  world 
without  irritating  it  or  drawing  it  on  to  new  antagonisms, 
when  the  nations  with  which  we  deal  shall  at  last  come  to 
see  upon  what  deep  foundations  of  humanity  and  justice  our 
passion  for  peace  rests,  and  when  all  mankind  shall  look 
upon  our  great  people  with  a  new  sentiment  of  admiration, 
friendly  rivalry  and  real  affection,  as  upon  a  people  who, 
though  keen  to  succeed,  seeks  always  to  be  at  once  generous 
and  just  and  to  whom  humanity  is  dearer  than  profit  or  sel¬ 
fish  power. 

Upon  this  record  and  in  the  faith  of  this  purpose  we  go  to 
the  country. 


SPEECH 

OF 

PRESIDENT  WOODROW  WILSON 

ACCEPTING  THE  NOMINATION  FOR  PRESIDENT 

BY  THE  DEMOCRATIC  PARWVtffSiTY  OF  ILLINOIS  LIBRARY 

TOGETHER  WITH  ADDRESS  OF  STC'ri  «=a 

NOTIFICATION  BY  ^  j.317 

SENATOR  OLLIE  M.  JAMES 

OF  KENTUCKY 


DELIVERED  AT  SHADOW  LAWN,  NEW  JERSEY 


SATURDAY,  SEPTEMBER  2,  1916 


59827—16473 


WASHINGTON 

1916 


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SPEECH 

OF 

PRESIDENT  WILSON, 

AND 

ADDRESS  OF  SENATOR  OLLIE  M.  JAMES. 


President  Woodrow  Wilson’s  Speech  of  Acceptance,  1916. 

Senator  James,  gentlemen  of  the  notification  committee,  fel¬ 
low  citizens,  I  can  not  accept  the  leadership  and  responsibility 
which  the  national  Democratic  convention  has  again,  in  such 
generous  fashion,  asked  me  to  accept  without  first  expressing 
my  profound  gratitude  to  the  party  for  the  trust  it  reposes  in 
me  after  four  years  of  fiery  trial  in  the  midst  of  affairs  of  un¬ 
precedented  difficulty,  and  the  keen  sense  of  added  responsibility 
with  which  this  honor  fills — I  had  almost  said  burdens — me  as  I 
think  of  the  great  issues  of  national  life  and  policy  involved  in 
the  present  and  immediate  future  conduct  of  our  Government.  I 
shall  seek,  as  I  have  always  sought,  to  justify  the  extraordinary 
confidence  thus  reposed  in  me  by  striving  to  purge  my  heart  and 
purpose  of  every  personal  and  of  every  misleading  party  motive 
and  devoting  every  energy  I  have  to  the  service  of  the  Nation 
as  a  whole,  praying  that  I  may  continue  to  have  the  counsel  and 
support  of  all  forward-looking  men  at  every  turn  of  the  difficult 
business. 

For  l  do  not  doubt  that  the  people  of  the  United  States  will 
wish  the  Democratic  Party  to  continue  in  control  of  the  Govern¬ 
ment.  They  are  not  in  the  habit  of  rejecting  those  who  have 
r  actually  served  them  for  those  who  are  making  doubtful  and 
£,  conjectural  promises  of  service.  Least  of  all  are  they  likely  to 
5=  substitute  those  who  promised  to  render  them  particular  services 
~  and  proved  false  to  that  promise  for  those  who  have  actually 
rendered  those  very  services. 

Boasting  is  always  an  empty  business,  which  pleases  nobody 
but  the  boaster,  and  I  have  no  disposition  to  boast  of  what  the 
Democratic  Party  has  accomplished.  It  has  merely  done  its  duty. 
It  has  merely  fulfilled  its  explicit  promises.  But  there  can  be  no 
violation  of  good  taste  in  calling  attention  to  the  manner  in 
which  those  promises  have  been  carried  out  or  in  adverting  to 
the  interesting  fact  that  many  of  the  things  accomplished  were 
what  the  opposition  party  had  again  and  again  promised  to  do  but 
had  left  undone.  Indeed  that  is  manifestly  part  of  the  business 
of  this  year  of  reckoning  and  assessment.  There  is  no  means 
of  judging  the  future  except  by  assessing  the  past.  Constructive 
action  must  be  weighed  against  destructive  comment  and  reac¬ 
tion.  The  Democrats  either  have  or  have  not  understood  the 
varied  interests  of  the  country.  The  test  is  contained  in  the 
record. 

What  is  that  record?  What  were  the  Democrats  called  into 
power  to  do?  What  things  had  long  waited  to  be  done,  and  how 
59827—16473  3 


1181  87C 


4 


did  the  Democrats  do  them?  It  is  a  record  of  extraordinary 
length  and  variety,  rich  in  elements  of  many  kinds,  but  con¬ 
sistent  in  principle  throughout  and  susceptible  of  brief  recital. 

The  Republican  Party  was  put  out  of  power  because  of  fail¬ 
ure,  practical  failure  and  moral  failure;  because ‘it  had  served 
special  interests  and  not  the  country  at  large;  because,  under 
the  leadership  of  its  preferred  and  established  guides,  of  those 
who  still  make  its  choices,  it  had  lost  touch  with  the  thoughts 
and  the  needs  of  the  Nation  and  was  living  in  a  past  age  and 
under  a  fixed  illusion,  the  illusion  of  greatness.  It  had  framed 
tariff  laws  based  upon  a  fear  of  foreign  trade,  a  fundamental 
doubt  as  to  American  skill,  enterprise,  and  capacity,  and  a  very 
tender  regard  for  the  profitable  privileges  of  those  who  had 
gained  control  of  domestic  markets  and  domestic  credits ;  and 
yet  had  enacted  antitrust  laws  which  hampered  the  very  things 
they  meant  to  foster,  which  were  stiff  and  inelastic,  and  in  part 
unintelligible.  It  had  permitted  the  country  throughout  the 
long  period  of  its  control  to  stagger  from  one  financial  crisis  to 
another  under  the  operation  of  a  national  banking  law  of  its 
own  framing  which  made  stringency  and  panic  certain  and  the 
control  of  the  larger  business  operations  of  the  country  by  the 
bankers  of  a  few  reserve  centers  inevitable ;  had  made  as  if  it 
meant  to  reform  the  law,  but  had  faint-heartedly  failed  in  the 
attempt,  because  it  could  not  bring  itself  to  do  the  one  thing 
necessary  to  make  the  reform  genuine  and  effectual,  namely, 
break  up  the  control  of  small  groups  of  bankers.  It  had  been 
oblivious  or  indifferent  to  the  fact  that  the  farmers,  upon  whom 
the  country  depends  for  its  food  and  in  the  last  analysis  for 
its  prosperity,  were  without  standing  in  the  matter  of  com¬ 
mercial  credit,  without  the  protection  of  standards  in  their 
market  transactions,  and  without  systematic  knowledge  of  the 
markets  themselves ;  that  the  laborers  of  the  country,  the  great 
army  of  men  who  man  the  industries  it  was  professing  to  father 
and  promote,  carried  their  labor  as  a  mere  commodity  to 
market,  were  subject  to  restraint  by  novel  and  drastic  process 
in  the  courts,  were  without  assurance  of  compensation  for  in¬ 
dustrial  accidents,  without  Federal  assistance  in  accommodat¬ 
ing  labor  disputes,  and  without  national  aid  or  advice  in  finding 
the  places  and  the  industries  in  which  their  labor  was  most 
needed.  The  country  had  no  national  system  of  road  construc¬ 
tion  and  development.  Little  intelligent  attention  was  paid  to 
the  Army,  and  not  enough  to  the  Navy.  The  other  Republics  of 
America  distrusted  us,  because  they  found  that  we  thought 
first  of  the  profits  of  American  investors  and  only  as  an  after¬ 
thought  of  impartial  justice  and  helpful  friendship.  Its  policy 
was  provincial  in  all  things ;  its  purposes  were  out  of  harmony 
with  the  temper  and  purpose  of  the  people  and^the  timely  de¬ 
velopment  of  the  Nation’s  interests. 

So  things  stood  when  the  Democratic  Party  came  into  power. 
How  do  they  stand  now?  Alike  in  the  domestic  field  and  in  the 
wide  field  of  the  commerce  of  the  world,  American  business 
and  life  and  industry  have  been  set  free  to  move  as  they  never 
moved  before. 

The  tariff  has  been  revised,  not  on^the  principle  of  repelling 
foreign  trade  but  upon  the  principle"*  of  encouraging  it,  upon 
something  like  a  footing  of  equality  with  our  own  in  respect  of 
59827—16473 


5 


the  terms  of  competition,  and  a  Tariff  Board  has  been  created 
whose  function  it  will  be  to  keep  the  relations  of  American 
with  foreign  business  and  industry  under  constant  observation, 
for  the  guidance  alike  of  our  business  men  and  of  our  Congress. 
American  energies  are  now  directed  toward  the  markets  of  the 
world. 

The  laws  against  trusts  have  been  clarified  by  definition,  with 
a  view  to  making  it  plain  that  they  were  not  directed  against 
big  business  but  only  against  unfair  business  and  the  pretense 
of  competition  where  there  was  none ;  and  a  Trade  Commission 
has  been  created  with  powers  of  guidance  and  accommodation 
which  have  relieved  business  men  of  unfounded  fears  and  set 
them  upon  the  road  of  hopeful  and  confident  enterprise. 

By  the  Federal  reserve  act  the  supply  of  currency  at  the  dis¬ 
posal  of  active  business  has  been  rendered  elastic,  taking  its 
volume  not  from  a  fixed  body  of  investment  securities,  but  from 
the  liquid  assets  of  daily  trade;  and  these  assets  are  assessed 
and  accepted  not  by  distant  groups  of  bankers  in  control  of  un¬ 
available  reserves,  but?  by  bankers  at  the  many  centers  of  local 
exchange  who  are  in  touch  with  local  conditions  everywhere. 

Effective  measures  have  been  taken  for  the  re-creation  of  an 
American  merchant  marine  and  the  revival  of  the  American 
carrying  trade  indispensable  to  our  emancipation  from  the  con¬ 
trol  which  foreigners  have  so  long  exercised  over  the  opportuni¬ 
ties,  the  routes,  and  the  methods  of  our  commerce  with  other 
countries. 

The  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  has  been  reorganized  to 
enable  it  to  perform  its  great  and  important  functions  more 
promptly  and  more  efficiently.  We  have  created,  extended,  and 
improved  the  service  of  the  parcel  post. 

•  So  much  we  have  done  for  business.  What  other  party  has 
understood  the  task  so  well  or  executed  it  so  intelligently  and 
energetically?  What  other  party  has  attempted  it  at  all?  The 
Republican  leaders,  apparently,  know  of  no  means  of  assisting 
business  but  “  protection.”  How  to  stimulate  it  and  put  it  upon 
a  new  footing  of  energy  and  enterprise  they  have  not  suggested. 

For  the  farmers  of  the  country  we  have  virtually  created  com¬ 
mercial  credit,  by  means  of  the  Federal  reserve  act  and  the 
rural-credits  act.  They  now  have  the  standing  of  other  busi¬ 
ness  men  in  the  money  market.  We  have  successfully  regulated 
speculation  in  “  futures  ”  and  established  standards  in  the  mar¬ 
keting  of  grains.  By  an  intelligent  warehouse  act  we  have 
assisted  to  make  the  standard  crops  available  as  never  before, 
both  for  systematic  marketing  and  as  a  security  for  loans  from 
the  banks.  We  have  greatly  added  to  the  work  of  neighborhood 
demonstration  on  the  farm  itself  of  improved  methods  of  culti¬ 
vation,  and,  through  the  intelligent  extension  of  the  functions 
of  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  have  made  it  possible  for  the 
farmer  to  learn  systematically  where  his  best  markets  are  and 
how  to  get  at  them. 

-The  workingmen  of  America  have  been  given  a  veritable 
emancipation  by  the  legal  recognition  of  a  man’s  labor  as  part 
of  his  life,  and  not  a  mere  marketable  commodity ;  by  exempting 
labor  organizations  from  processes  of  the  courts,  which  treated 
their  members  like  fractional  parts  of  mobs  and  not  like  acces¬ 
sible  and  responsible  individuals ;  by  releasing  our  seamen  from 
59827—16473 


6 


involuntary  servitude;  by  making  adequate  provision  for  com¬ 
pensation  for  industrial  .  accidents ;  by  providing  suitable  ma¬ 
chinery  for  mediation  and  conciliation  in  industrial  disputes ; 
and  by  putting  the  Federal  Department  of  Labor  at  the  dis¬ 
posal  of  the  workingman  when  in  search  of  work. 

We  have  effected  the  emancipation  of  the  children  of  the 
country  by  releasing  them  from  hurtful  labor.  We  have  insti¬ 
tuted  a  system  of  national  aid  in  the  building  of  highroads 
such  as  the  country  has  been  feeling  after  for  a  century.  We 
have  sought  to  equalize  taxation  by  means  of  an  equitable  in- 
coihe  tax.  We  have  taken  the  steps  that  ought  to  have  been 
taken  at  the  outset  to  open  up  the  resources  of  Alaska.  We 
have  provided  for  national1  defense  upon  a  scale  never  before 
seriously  proposed  upon  the  responsibility  of  an  entire  political 
party.  We  have  driven  the  tariff  lobby  from  cover  and  obliged 
it  to  substitute  solid  argument  for  private  influence. 

This  extraordinary  recital  must  sound  like  a  platform,  a  list 
of  sanguine  promises ;  but  it  is  not.  It  is  a  record  of  promises 
made  four  years  ago  and  now  actually  redeemed  in  constructive 
legislation. 

These  things  must  profoundly  disturb  the  thoughts  and  con¬ 
found  the  plans  of  those  who  have  made  themselves  believe  that 
the  Democratic  Party  neither  understood  nor  was  ready  to 
assist  the  business  of  the  country  in  the  great  enterprises  which 
it  is  its  evident  and  inevitable  destiny  to  undertake  and  carry 
through.  The  breaking  up  of  the  lobby  must  especially  discon¬ 
cert  them;  for  it  was  through  the  lobby  that  they  sought  and 
were  sure  they  had  found  the  heart  of  things.  The  game  of 
privilege  can  be  played  successfully  by  no  other  means.. 

This  record  must  equally  astonish  those  who  feared  that  the 
Democratic  Party  had  not  opened  its  heart  to  comprehend  the 
demands  of  social  justice.  We  have  in  four  years  come  very 
near  to  carrying  out  the  platform  of  the  Progressive  Party  as 
well  as  our  own ;  for  we  also  are  progressives. 

There  is  one  circumstance  connected  with  this  programme 
which  ought  to  be  very  plainly  stated.  It  was  resisted  at  every 
step  by  the  interests  which  the  Republican  Party  had  catered  to 
and  fostered  at  the  expense  of  the  country,  and  these  same  inter¬ 
ests  are  now  earnestly  praying  for  a  reaction  which  will  save 
their  privileges — for  the  restoration  of  their  sworn  friends  to 
power  before  it  is  too  late  to  recover  what  they  have  lost.  They 
fought  with  particular  desperation  and  infinite  resourcefulness 
the  reform  of  the  banking  and  currency  system,  knowing  that 
to  be  the  citadel  of  their  control ;  and  most  anxiously  are  they 
hoping  and  planning  for  the  amendment  of  the  Federal  reserve 
act  by  the  concentration  of  control  in  a  single  bank  which  the 
old  familiar  group  of  bankers  can  keep  under  their  eye  and 
direction.  But  while  the  “  big  men  ”  who  used  to  write  the 
tariffs  and  command  the  assistance  of  the  Treasury  have  been 
hostile — all  but  a  few  with  vision — the  average  business  man 
knows  that  he  has  been  delivered,  and  that  the  fear  that  was 
once  every  day  in  his  heart,  that  the  men  who  controlled  credit 
and  directed  enterprise  from  the  committee  rooms  of  Congress 
would  crush  him,  is  there  no  more,  and  will  not  return,  unless 
the  party  that  consulted  only  the  “big  men”  should  return  to 
59827—16473 


T 


power — the  party  of  masterly  inactivity  and  cunning  resource¬ 
fulness  in  standing  pat  to  resist  change. 

The  Republican  Party  is  just  the  party  that  can  not  meet  the 
new  conditions  of  a  new  age.  It  does  not  know  the  way  and 
it  does  not  wish  new  conditions.  It  tried  to  break  away  from 
the  old  leaders  and  could  not.  They  still  select  its  candidates 
and  dictate  its  policy,  still  resist  change,  still  hanker  after  the 
old  conditions,  still  know  no  methods  of  encouraging  business 
but  the  old  methods.  When  it  changes  its  leaders  and  its  pur¬ 
poses  and  brings  its  ideas  up  to  date,  it  will  have  the  right  to 
ask  the  American  people  to  give  it  power  again;  but  not  until 
then.  A  new  age,  an  age  of  revolutionary  change,  needs  new 
purposes  and  new  ideas. 

In  foreign  affairs  we  have  been  guided  by  principles  clearly 
conceived  and  consistently  lived  up  to.  Perhaps  they  have  not 
been  fully  comprehended  because  they  have  hitherto  governed 
international  affairs  only  in  theory,  not  in  practice.  They 
are  simple,  obvious,  easily  stated,  and  fundamental  to  Ameri¬ 
can  ideals. 

We  have  been  neutral  not  only  because  it  was  the  fixed  and  - 
traditional  policy  of  the  United  States  to  stand  aloof  from  the 
politics  of  Europe  and  because  we  had  had  no  part  either  of 
action  or  of  policy  in  the  influences  which  brought  on  the 
present  war,  but  also  because  it  was  manifestly  our  duty  to 
prevent,  if  it  were  possible,  the  indefinite  extension  of  the 
fires  of  hate  and  desolation  kindled  by  that  terrible  conflict 
and  seek  to  serve  mankind  by  reserving  our  strength  and  our 
resources  for  the  anxious  and  difficult  days  of  restoration  and 
healing  which  must  follow,  when  peace  will  have  to  build  its 
house  anew. 

The  rights  of  our  own  citizens  of  course  became  involved  ;  that 
was  inevitable.  Where  they  did  this  was  our  guiding  princi¬ 
ple  :  that  property  rights  can  be  vindicated  by  claims  for  dam¬ 
ages  when  the  war  is  over,  and  no  modern  nation  can  decline 
to  arbitrate  such  claims;  but  the  fundamental  rights  of  hu¬ 
manity  can  not  be.  The  loss  of  life  is  irreparable.  Neither  can 
direct  violations  of  a  nation’s  sovereignty  await  vindication  in 
suits  for  damages.  The  nation  that  violates  these  essential 
rights  must  expect  to  be  checked  and  called  to  account  by  direct 
challenge  and  resistance.  It  at  once  makes  the  quarrel  in  part 
our  own.  These  are  plain  principles,  and  we  have  never  lost 
sight  of  them  or  departed  from  them,  whatever  the  stress  or  the 
perplexity  of  circumstance  or  the  provocation  to  hasty  resent¬ 
ment.  The  record  is  clear  and  consistent  throughout  and  stands 
distinct  and  definite  for  anyone  to  judge  who  wishes  to  know  the 
truth  about  it. 

The  seas  were  not  broad  enough  to  keep  the  infection  of  the 
conflict  out  of  our  own  politics.  The  passions  and  intrigues  of 
certain  active  groups  and  combinations  of  men  amongst  us  who 
were  born  under  foreign  flags  injected  the  poison  of  disloyalty 
into  our  own  most  critical  affairs,  laid  violent  hands  upon 
many  of  our  industries,  and  subjected  us  to  the  shame  of  divi¬ 
sions  of  sentiment  and  purpose  in  which  America  was  contemned 
and  forgotten.  It  is  part  of  the  business  of  this  year  of  reckon¬ 
ing  and  settlement  to  speak  plainly  and  act  with  unmistakable 
purpose  in  rebuke  of  these  things.  In  order  that  they  may  be  for- 
59827—16473 


8 


ever  hereafter  impossible.  I  am  the  candidate  of  a  party,  but  I 
am  above  all  things  else  an  American  citizen.  I  neither  seek 
the  favor  nor  fear  the  displeasure  of  that  small  alien  element 
amongst  us  which  puts  loyalty  to  any  foreign  power  before 
loyalty  to  the  United  States. 

While  Europe  was  at  war  our  own  continent,  one  of  our  own 
neighbors,  was  shaken  by  revolution.  In  that  matter,  too, 
principle  was  plain  and  it  was  imperative  that  we  should  live 
up  to  it  if  we  were  to  deserve  the  tru^t  of  any  real  partisan  of 
the  right  as  free  men  see  it.  We  have  professed  to  believe,  and 
we  do  believe,  that  the  people  of  small  and  weak  states  have 
the  right  to  expect  to  be  dealt  with  exactly  as  the  people  of 
big  and  .  powerful  states  would  be.  We  have  acted  upon  that 
principle  in  dealing  with  the  people  of  Mexico. 

Our  recent  pursuit  of  bandits  into  Mexican  territory  was  no 
violation  of  that  principle.  We  ventured  to  enter  Mexican 
territory  only  because  there  were  no  military  forces  in  Mexico 
that  could  protect  our  border  from  hostile  attack  and  our  own 
people  from  violence,  and  we  have  committed  there  no  single 
act  of  hostility  or  interference  even  with  the  sovereign  au¬ 
thority  of  the  Republic  of  Mexico  herself.  It  was  a  plain  case 
of  the  violation  of  our  own  sovereignty  which  could  not  wait 
to  be  vindicated  by  damages  and  for  which  there  was  no  other 
remedy.  The  authorities  of  Mexico  were  powerless  to  prevent  it. 

Many  serious  wrongs  against  the  property,  many  irreparable 
wrongs  against  the  persons,  of  Americans  have  been  committed 
within  the  territory  of  Mexico  herself  during  this  confused 
revolution,  wrongs  which  could  not  be  effectually  checked  so 
long  as  there  was.no  constituted  power  in  Mexico  which  was  in 
a  position  to  check  them.  We  could  not  act  directly  in  that 
matter  ourselves  without  denying  Mexicans  the  right  to  any 
revolution  at  all  which  disturbed  us  and  making  the  emancipa¬ 
tion  of  her  own  people  await  our  own  interest  and  convenience. 

For  it  is  their  emancipation  that  they  are  seeking — blindly,  it 
'  may  be,  and  as  yet  ineffectually,  but  with  profound  and  pas¬ 
sionate  purpose  and  within  their  unquestionable  right,  apply 
what  true  American  principle  you  will — any  principle  that  an 
American  would  publicly  avow.  The  people  of  Mexico  have  not 
been  suffered  to  own  their  own  country  or  direct  their  own 
institutions.  Outsiders,  men  out  of  other  nations  and  with  in¬ 
terests  too  often  alien  to  their  own,  have  dictated  what  their 
privileges  and  opportunities  should  be  and  who  should  con¬ 
trol  their  land,  their  lives,  and  their  resources — some  of  them 
Americans,  pressing  for  things  they  could  never  have  got  in 
their  own  country.  The  Mexican  people  are  entitled  to  at¬ 
tempt  their  liberty  from  such  influences ;  and  so  long  as  I  have 
anything  to  do  with  the  action  of  our  great  Government  I  shall 
do  everything  in  my  power  to  prevent  anyone  standing  in  their 
way.  I  know  that  this  is  hard  for  some  persons  to  understand ; 
but  it  is  not  hard  for  the  plain  people  of  the  United  States  to 
understand.  It  is  hard  doctrine  only  for  those  who  wish  to 
get  something  for  themselves  out  of  Mexico.  There  are  men, 
and  noble  women,  too,  not  a  few,  of  our  own  people,  thank  God ! 
whose  fortunes  are  invested  in  great  properties  in  Mexico  who 
yet  see  the  case  with  true  vision  and  assess  its  issues  with  true 
American  feeling.  The  rest  can  be  left  for  the  present  out  of 
59827—16473 


the  reckoning  until  this  enslaved  people  has  had  its  day  of 
struggle  toward  the  light.  I  have  heard  no  one  who  was  free 
from  such  influences  propose  interference  by  the  United  States 
with  the  internal  affairs  of  Mexico.  Certainly  no  friend  of  the 
Mexican  people  has  proposed  it. 

The  people  of  the  United  States  are  capable  of  great  sym¬ 
pathies  and  a  noble  pity  in  dealing  with  problems  of  this  kind. 
As  their  spokesman  and  representative,  I  have  tried  to  act 
in  the  spirit  they  would  wish  me  show\  The  people  of  Mexico 
are  striving  for  the  rights  that  are  fundamental  to  life  and 
happiness — 15,000,000  oppressed  men,  overburdened  women,  and 
pitiful  children  in  virtual  bondage  in  their  own  home  of  fertile 
lands  and  inexhaustible  treasure  1  Some  of  the  leaders  of  the 
revolution  may  often  have  been  mistaken  and  violent  and 
selfish,  but  the  revolution  itself  was  inevitable  and  is  right.  The 
unspeakable  Huerta  betrayed  the  very  comrades  he  served,  trai¬ 
torously  overthrew  the  government  of  which  he  was  a  trusted 
part,  impudently  spoke  for  the  very  forces  that  had  driven  his 
people  to  the  rebellion,  with  which  he  had  pretended  to  sympa¬ 
thize.  The  men  wTho  overcame  him  and  drove  him  out  represent 
at  least  the  fierce  passion  of  reconstruction  which  lies  at  the 
very  heart  of  liberty ;  and  so  long  as  they  represent,  however 
imperfectly,  such  a  struggle  for  deliverance,  I  am  ready  to  serve 
their  ends  when  I  can.  So  long  as  the  power  of  recognition  rests 
with  me  the  Government  of  the  United  States  will  refuse  to 
extend  the  hand  of  welcome  to  anyone  who  obtains  power  in  a 
sister  republic  by  treachery  and  violence.  No  permanency  can 
be  given  the  affairs  of  any  republic  by  a  title  based  upon  intrigue 
and  assassination.  I  declared  that  to  be  the  policy  of  this  ad¬ 
ministration  within  three  weeks  after  I  assumed  the  Presidency. 
I  here  again  vow  it.  I  am  more  interested  in  the  fortunes  of 
oppressed  men  and  pitiful  women  and  children  than  in  any 
property  rights  whatever.  Mistakes  I  have  no  doubt  made  in 
this  perplexing  business,  but  not  in  purpose  or  object. 

More  is  involved  than  the  immediate  destinies  of  Mexico  and 
the  relations  of  the  United  States  with  a  distressed  and  dis¬ 
tracted  people.  All  America  looks  on.  Test  is  now  being  made 
of  us  whether  we  be  sincere  lovers  of  popular  liberty  or  not  and 
are  indeed  to  be  trusted  to  respect  national  sovereignty  among 
our  weaker  neighbors.  We  have  undertaken  these  many  years 
to  play  big  brother  to  the  republics  of  this  hemisphere.  This  is 
the  day  of  our  test,  wliether  we  mean,  or  have  ever  meant,  to 
play  that  part  for  our  own  benefit  wholly  or  also  for  theirs. 
Upon  the  outcome  of  that  test — its  outcome  in  their  minds,  not 
in  ours — depends  every  relationship  of  the  United  States  with 
Latin  America,  whether  in  politics  or  in  commerce  and  enter¬ 
prise.  These  are  great  issues  and  lie  at  the  heart  of  the  gravest 
tasks  of  the  future,  tasks  both  economic  and  political,  and  very 
intimately  inwrought  with  many  of  the  most  vital  of  the  new 
issues  of  the  politics  of  the  world.  The  republics  of  America 
have  in  the  last  three  years  been  drawing  together  in  a  new 
spirit  of  accommodation,  mutual  understanding,  and  cordial 
cooperation.  Much  of  the  politics  of  the  world  in  the  years  to 
come  will  depend  upon  their  relationships  with  one  another. 
It  is  a  barren  and  provincial  statesmanship  that  loses  sight  of 
such  things !. 

59827—16473 


10 


The  future,  the  immediate  future,  will  bring  us  squarely  face 
to  face  with  many  great  and  exacting  problems  which  will 
search  us  through  and  through  whether  we  be  able  and  ready 
to  play  the  part  in  the  world  that  we  mean  to  play.  It  will  not 
bring  us  into  their  presence  slowly,  gently,  with  ceremonious  in¬ 
troduction,  but  suddenly  and  at  oncer  the  .moment  the  war  in 
Europe  is  over.  They  will  be  new  problems,  most  of  them; 
many  will  be  old  problems  in  a  new  setting  and  with  new  ele¬ 
ments  which  we  have  never  dealt  with  or  reckoned  the  force 
and  meaning  of  before.  They  will  require  for  their  solution  new 
thinking,  fresh  courage  and  resourcefulness,  and  in  some  matters 
radical  reconsiderations  of  policy.  We  must  be  ready  to  mobilize 
our  resources  alike  of  brains  and  of  materials. 

It  is  not  a  future  to  be  afraid  of.  It  is,  rather,  a  future  to 
stimulate  and  excite  us  to  the  display  of  the  best  powers  that 
are  in  us.  We  may  enter  it  with  confidence  when  we  are  sure 
that  we  understand  it — and  we  have  provided  ourselves  already 
with  the  means  of  understanding  it. 

Look  first  at  what  it  will  be  necessary  that  the  nations  of 
the  world  should  do  to  make  the  days  to  come  tolerable  and  fit 
to  live  and  work  in ;  and  then  look  at  our  part  in  what  is  to 
follow  and  our  own  duty  of  preparation.  For  we  must  be  pre¬ 
pared  both  in  resources  and  in  policy. 

There  must  be  a  just  and  settled  peace,  and  we  here  in 
America  must  contribute  the  full  force  of  our  enthusiasm  and  of 
our  authority  as  a  Nation  to  the  organization  of  that  peace 
upon  world-wide  foundations  that  can  not  easily  be  shaken. 
No  nation  should  be  forced  to  take  sides  in  any  quarrel  in  wrhich 
its  own  honor  and  integrity  and  the  fortunes  of  its  own  people 
are  not  involved;  but  no  nation  can  any  longer  remain  neutral 
as  against  any  willful  disturbance  of  the  peace  of  the  world. 
The  effects  of  war  can  no  longer  be  confined  to  the  areas  of 
battle.  No  nation  stands  wholly  apart  in  interest  when  the  life 
and  interests  of  all  nations  are  thrown  into  confusion  and  peril. 
If  hopeful  and  generous  enterprise  is  to  be  renewed,  if  the 
healing  and  helpful  arts  of  life  are  indeed  to  be  revived  when 
peace  comes  again,  a  new  atmosphere  of  justice  and  friendship 
must  be  generated  by  means  the  world  has  never  tried  before. 
The  nations  of  the  world  must  unite  in  joint  guaranties  that 
whatever  is  done  to  disturb  the  whole  world’s  life  must  first  be 
tested  in  the  court  of  the  whole  world’s  opinion  before  it  is 
attempted. 

These  are  the  new  foundations  the  world  must  build  for  itself, 
and  we  must  play  our  part  in  the  reconstruction,  generously  and 
without  too  much  thought  of  our  separate  interests.  We  must 
make  ourselves  ready  to  play  it  intelligently,  vigorously,  and 
well. 

One  of  the  contributions  we  must  make  to  the  world’s  peace 
is  this:  We  must  see  to  it  that  the  people  in  our  insular  pos¬ 
sessions  are  treated  in  their  own  lands  as  we  would  treat  them 
here,  and  make  the  rule  of  the  United  States  mean  the  same 
thing  everywhere — the  same  justice,  the  same  consideration  for 
the  essential  rights  of  men. 

Besides  contributing  our  ungrudging  moral  and  practical  sup¬ 
port  to  the  establishment  of  peace  throughout  the  world,  we 
must  actively  and  intelligently  prepare  ourselves  to  do  our  full 
59827—16473 


II 

service  in  the  trade  and  industry  which  are  to  sustain  and 
develop  the  life  of  the  nations  in  the  days  to  come. 

We  have  already  been  provident  in  this  great  matter  and  sup¬ 
plied  ourselves  with  the  instrumentalities  of  prompt  adjust¬ 
ment.  We  have  created,  in  the  Federal  Trade  Commission,  a 
means  of  inquiry  and  of  accommodation  in  the  field  of  commerce 
which  ought  both  to  coordinate  the  enterprises  of  our  traders 
and  manufacturers  and  to  remove  the  barriers  of  misunder¬ 
standing  ami  of  a  too  technical  interpretation  of  the  law.  In 
the  new  Tariff  Commission  we  have  added  another  instrumen¬ 
tality  of  observation  and  adjustment  which  promises  to  be  im¬ 
mediately  serviceable.  The  Trade  Commission  substitutes 
counsel  and  accommodation  for  the  harsher  processes  of  legal 
restraint,  and  the  Tariff  Commission  ought  to>  substitute  facts 
for  prejudices  and  theories.  Our  exporters  have  for  some  time 
had  the  advantage  of  working  in  the  new  light  thrown  upon 
foreign  markets  and  opportunities  of  trade  by  the  intelligent 
inquiries  and  activities  of  the  Bureau  of  Foreign  and  Domestic 
Commerce  which  the  Democratic  Congress  so  wisely  created  in 
1912.  The  Tariff  Commission  completes  the  machinery  by  which 
we  shall  be  enabled  to  open  up  our  legislative  policy  to  the  facts 
as  they  develop. 

We  can  no  longer  indulge  our  traditional  provincialism.  We 
are  to  play  a  leading  part  in  the  world  drama  whether  we  wish 
it  or  not.  We  shall  lend,,  not  borrow ;  act  for  ourselves,  not 
imitate  or  follow ;  organise  and  initiate,  not  peep  about  merely 
to  see  where  we  may  get  in. 

We  have  already  formulated  and  agreed  upon  a  policy  of  law 
which  will  explicitly  remove  the  ban  now  supposed  to  rest  upon 
cooperation  amongst  our  exporters  in  seeking  and  securing  tlieir 
proper  place  in  the  markets  of  the  world.  The  field  will  be 
free,  the  instrumentalities  at  hand.  It  will  only  remain  for 
the  masters  of  enterprise  amongst  us  to  act  in  energetic  concert, 
and  for  the  Government  of  the  United  States  to  insist  upon  the 
maintenance  throughout  the.  worLd  of  those  conditions  of  fair¬ 
ness  and  of  even-handed  justice  in  the  commercial  dealings  of 
the  nations  with  one  another  upon  which,  after  all,  in  the  last 
analysis,  the  peace  and  ordered  life  of  the  world  must  ultimately 
depend. 

At  home  also  we  must  see  to  It  that  the  men  who  plan  and 
develop  and  direct  our  business  enterprises  shall  enjoy  definite 
and  settled  conditions  of  law,  a  policy  accommodated  to  the  » 
freest  progress.  We  have  set  the  just  and  necessary  limits. 
We  have  put  all  kinds  of  unfair  competition  under  the  ban  and 
penalty  of  the  law.  We  have  barred  monopoly.  These  fatal 
and  ugly  things  being  excluded,  we  must  now  quicken  action  and 
facilitate  enterprise  by  every  just  means  within  our  choice. 
There  will  be  peace  in  the  business  world,  and,  with  peace,  re¬ 
vived  confidence  and  life. 

We  ought  both  to-  husband!  and  to  develop  our  natural  re¬ 
sources,  our  mines,  our  forests,  our  water  power.  I  wish  we 
could  have  made  more  progress  than  we  have  made  in  this 
vital  matter ;  and  I  call  once  more,  with  the  deepest  earnestness 
and  solicitude,  upon  the  advocates  of  a  careful  and  provident 
conservation,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  advocates  of  a  free 
59827— 1G473 


12 


and  inviting  field  for  private  capital,  on  the  other,  to  get  to¬ 
gether  in  a  spirit  of  genuine  accommodation  and  agreement  and 
set  this  great  policy  forward  at  once. 

We  must  hearten  and  quicken  the  spirit  and  efficiency  of  labor 
throughout  our  whole  industrial  system  by  everywhere  and  in  all 
occupations  doing  justice  to  the  laborer,  not  only  by  paying  a 
living  wage  but  also  by  making  all  the  conditions  that  surround 
labor  what  they  ought  to  be.  And  we  must  do  more  than  justice. 
We  must  safeguard  life  and  promote  health  and  safety  in  every 
occupation  in  which  they  are  threatened  or  imperiled.  That  is 
more  than  justice,  and  better,  because  it  is  humanity  and 
economy. 

We  must  coordinate  the  railway  systems  of  the  country  for 
national  use,  and  must  facilitate  and  promote  their  development 
with  a  view  to  that  coordination  and  to  their  better  adaptation 
as  a  whole  to  the  life  and  trade  and  defense  of  the  Nation.  The 
life  and  industry  of  the  country  can  be  free  and  unhampered 
only  if  these  arteries  are  open,  efficient,  and  complete. 

Thus  shall  we  stand  ready  to  meet  the  future  as  circumstance 
and  international  policy  effect  their  unfolding,  whether  the 
changes  come  slowly  or  come  fast  and  without  preface. 

I  have  not  spoken  explicitly,  gentlemen,  of  the  platform 
adopted  at  St.  Louis ;  but  it  has  been  implicit  in  all  that  I  have 
said.  I  have  sought  to  interpret  its  spirit  and  meaning.  The 
people  of  the  United  States  do  not  need  to  be  assured  now  that 
that  platform  is  a  definite  pledge,  a  practical  program.  We 
have  proved  to  them  that  our  promises  are  made  to  be  kept. 

We  hold  very  definite  ideals.  We  believe  that  the  energy  and 
initiative  of  our  people  have  been  too  narrowly  coached  and 
superintended ;  that  they  should  be  set  free,  as  we  have  set  them 
free,  to  disperse  themselves  throughout  the  Nation;  that  they 
should  not  be  concentrated  in  the  hands  of  a  few  powerful  guides 
and  guardians,  as  our  opponents  have  again  and  again,  in  effect 
if  not  in  purpose,  sought  to  concentrate  them.  We  believe, 
moreover — who  that  looks  about  him  now  with  comprehending 
eye  can  fail  to  believe — that  the  day  of  little  Americanism, 
with  its  narrow  horizons,  when  methods  of  “  protection  ”m  and 
industrial  nursing  were  the  chief  study  of  our  provincial  states¬ 
men,  are  past  and  gone  and  that  a  day  of  enterprise  has  at  last 
dawned  for  the  United  States  whose  field  is  the  wide  world. 

We  hope  to  see  the  stimulus  of  that  new  day  draw  all  America, 
the  Republics  of  both  continents,  on  to  a  new  life  and  energy 
and  initiative  in  the  great  affairs  of  peace.  We  are  Americans 
for  big  America,  and  rejoice  to  look  forward  to  the  days  in  which 
America  shall  strive  to  stir  the  world  without  irritating  it  or 
drawing  it  on  to  new  antagonisms,  when  the  nations  with  which 
we  deal  shall  at  last  come  to  see  upon  what  deep  foundations 
of  humanity  and  justice  our  passion  for  peace  rests,  and  when 
all  mankind  shall  look  upon  our  great  people  with  a  new  senti¬ 
ment  of  admiration,  friendly  rivalry,  and  real  affection,  as  upon 
a  people  who,  though  keen  to  succeed,  seeks  always  to  be  at 
once  generous  and  just  and  to  whom  humanity  is  dearer  than 
profit  or  selfish  power. 

Upon  this  record  and  in  the  faith  of  this  purpose  we  go  to  the 
country. 

59827—16473 


13 

Address  of  Hon.  Ollie  M.  James. 

Mr.  President,  the  Democracy  of  the  Republic  assembled  in 
national  convention  at  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  June  14,  1916,  was  genu¬ 
inely  representative  of  the  true  spirit  of  America — its  ideals 
of  justice  and  of  patriotism. 

These  representatives  of  the  purest  democracy  in  the  world, 
after  three  and  a  half  years  of  trial  of  your  service  to  the  people 
of  the  country,  with  a  Nation  to  choose  from  to  fill  the  greatest 
office  in  the  world,  instinctively  and  enthusiastically  turned  to 
you.  By  this  they  not  only  registered  their  own  will  and  desire, 
but  also  the  will  and  wish  of  the  people  back  home,  whose 
trusted  and  honored  spokesmen  they  were.  With  an  enthu¬ 
siasm,  unanimity,  and  earnestness  never  surpassed  in  the  po¬ 
litical  life  of  America,  they  have  summoned  you  again  to  lead 
the  hosts  of  peace,  prosperity,  and  American  righteousness. 

They  do  not  mhke  this  call  upon  you  for  the  purpose  of  hon¬ 
oring  you,  for  you  have  already  had  bestowed  upon  you  by 
your  countrymen  the  greatest  honor  within  their  gift.  They  call 
you  for  service  to  America  and  mankind ;  a  service  you  have 
so  amply  proved  to  be  of  the  highest  type  known  to  just  gov¬ 
ernments  among  men ;  a  service  that  has  given  justice  to  all 
men  upon  free  and  equal  terms;  a  service  that  has  restored 
taxation  to  its  historic  and  constitutional  function ;  a  service 
that  has  freed  trade  to  individual  and  honest  endeavor ;  a  serv¬ 
ice  that  has  lifted  from  the  tables  and  homes  of  the  plain  people 
of  America  a  burden  of  taxation  which  they  have  unjustly 
borne  for  more  than  a  half  century  and  placed  it  upon  the 
wealth  and  fortunes  of  the  land ;  a  service  that  has  driven  mo¬ 
nopoly  from  its  rendezvous  of  taxation ;  a  service  that  has 
denied  to  the  trusts  of  Republican  creation  a  hiding  place  in 
our  economic  life ;  a  service  to  the  toilers  of  America  that  lifted 
them  from  the  despised  level  of  a  commodity  to  the  high  plane 
of  a  human  unit  in  our  industrial  life;  a  service  that  has  dig¬ 
nified  them — the  great  army  of  workers  of  the  field,  factory,  and 
mine;  a  service  that  opened  the  courts  to  all  men  upon  equal 
terms  of  justice  and  constitutional  liberty ;  a  service  that  freed 
the  money  of  a  nation  from  the  control  of  a  “  money  oligarchy  ” 
and  lodged  it  in  the  hands  of  the  Government ;  a  service  that 
at  once  destroyed  two  trusts,  a  Money  Trust  and  a  Panic  Trust, 
where  the  business  can  not  be  oppressed  or  destroyed  by  ma¬ 
nipulation  of  the  money  market,  nor  legislation  controlled,  in¬ 
timidated,  or  suppressed  by  the  Panic  Trust.  These  two  trusts 
that  your  service  and  matchless  leadership  destroyed  live  only 
in  memory,  as  contemporary  with  the  malodorous  rule  of  the 
boss-ridden  and  monopoly-controlled  stand-pat  Republican  Party. 

It  is  a  service  which  has  prepared  the  Nation  for  its  defense; 
a  service  to  fair  and  equal  treatment  to  all  men  by  destroying 
a  subsidy  fed  to  an  American  monopoly;  a  service  to  the 
farmers  of  our  country  who  yearn  for  a  home  and  fireside  to 
call  their  own  by  enacting  into  law  a  Federal  rural  credits 
system  that  makes  credit  and  home  building  easy  to  the  tillers 
of  the  soil ;  a  service  that  in  the  stormiest  hours  of  America’s 
life  and  the  bloodiest  days  of  the  life  of  the  world,  you  have 
kept  our  people  at  peace  with  all  the  earth ;  a  service  that  has 
kept  homes  happy,  family  circles  unbroken,  while  the  Old 
World  staggers  beneath  its  weight  of  sorrow,  mourning,  and 
59827—10473 


14 


death ;  a  service  whose  victories  for  the  freedom  of  the  sea a, 
the  rights  of  neutral  life,  the  protection  of  American  citizens 
and  American  rights  stands  resplendent  in  the  world’s  inter¬ 
national  law  and  in  the  earth’s  diplomacy.  This  great  triumph 
which  you  achieved  for  America  and  the  world  gave  protection 
to  noncombatants  and  neutrals  that  war-mad  countries  must 
respect,  and  this  diplomatic  achievement  will  be  the  guiding, 
protecting  precedent  to  millions  of  lives  of  the  innocent  and  un¬ 
offending  long  after  you  are  gone.  This  triumph  of  yours  will 
not  be  told  in  history  by  a  great  war  debt,  a  mammoth  pension 
roll,  vacant  chairs  at  unhappy  firesides,  and  Decoration  Day 
services  to  place  flowers  upon  the  mounds  of  those  who  achieved 
it,  but  it  will  be  told  in  the  victory  of  matchless  diplomacy 
and  of  irresistible  logic,  presenting  in  an  unequaled  manner  the 
everlasting  principle  of  justice. 

Under  your  unrivaled  and  fearless  leadership  you  have 
rescued  the  little  children  of  America — the  future  fathers  and 
mothers  of  our  race — from  the  grinding  slavery  of  the  sweat¬ 
shop  and  the  factory.  No  dividends  or  fortunes  in  the  future 
will  bear  the  stain  of  their  toil  and  tears;  their  youthful  days 
will  be  spent  in  the  fresh  air  of  growing  life  and  in  the  school¬ 
rooms  of  the  land,  where  they  will  be  properly  prepared  in 
strength  and  mind  to  become  the  future  citizens  of  a  great, 
humane,  and  free  Republic. 

You  behold  your  country  after  three  and  a  half  years  of  your 
administration  more  prosperous  than  ever  in  its  history.  The 
earning  of  the  laborers  of  America  exceed  by  $3,000,000,000 
their  earnings  under  four  years  of  the  administration  of  your 
predecessor ;  the  savings  of  the  people  deposited  in  the  banks  of 
our  country  amout  to  $6,000,000,000  more  than  was  deposited 
under  the  four  years  of  the  administration  of  Mr.  Taft. 

Our  exports  for  the  first  time  in  our  history  lead  the  world ; 
our  farmers  are  more  prosperous  than  ever;  business  is  free; 
individual  endeavor  is  no  longer  denied  its  reward.  The  in¬ 
crease  in  the  business  of  the  commercial  world  is  so  great  that 
it  almost  staggers  the  mind  to  contemplate  it,  notwithstanding  a 
world’s  war  has  called  for  legislation  to  stay  the  process  of  the 
courts  in  debt  collections  in  all  the  neutral  countries  of  the 
world  except  here,  where  plenty  blesses  and  prospers  our  peo¬ 
ple.  Your  beloved  country  marches  forward  to  a  presperity 
never  dreamed  of.  Your  opponents  are  unwillingly  forced  to 
admit  this  happy  condition  of  our  people,  which  they  say  is  not 
permanent,  but  they  shall  be  no  more  regarded  as  prophets  now 
than  they  were  when  they  said  it  could  not  come. 

Four  years  ago  in  accepting  the  nomination  of  the  Democratic 
Party  for  the  Presidency  you  stated  that  you  would  seek  advice 
and  counsel  wherever  you  could  obtain  it  upon  free  terms ;  this 
you  have  done.  You  uncovered  and  drove  a  mighty  lobby  out 
of  the  Capitol  and  invited  Americans  of  all  stations  to  come  and 
counsel  with  you.  The  laborer  with  his  grimy  hand,  the  farmer 
with  the  tan  of  the  blazing  sun  upon  his  face,  the  railroad  men 
who  hold  the  throttle,  swing  the  lantern,  and  direct  the  rolling 
wrheels  of  commerce,  the  toiler  from  the  damp  and  darkness  of 
mine,  from  the  shop,  the  mill,  and  the  factory ;  the  business  men 
from  their  offices,  the  clerk  from  the  counter,  the  banker,  the 
artisan,  the  lawyer,  and  the  doctor,  have  come  and  found  wel- 
50827—16473 


15 


come  and  scared  counsel  with  you.  They  knew  you  were  free 
to  serve,  that  you  were  unbossed,  unowned,  and  unafraid.  They 
knew  you  only  sought  the  truth,  and  when  you  found  it  you 
were  ready  to  challenge  all  of  its  adversaries  to  any  conflict. 

When  peace  shall  spread  her  white  wings  over  a  charred  and 
bloody  world,  in  the  quiet  of  the  chamber  of  the  just  historian, 
when  the  din  and  roar  of  political  antagonism  shall  have  ceased, 
when  the  prejudice  and  passion  of  partisanship  shall  have  died 
away,  when  principle  shall  actuate  men  and  parties  rather  than 
appetite,  when  ambition  shall  no  longer  lure  men  and  parties  to 
unjust  attack,  the  historian  will  accord  to  you  and  your  adminis¬ 
tration  a  foremost  place  in  the  Republic’s  life. 

Americans  are  not  ungrateful ;  the  people  are  not  unpatriotic ; 
they  recognize  the  thousands  of  difficulties  that  no  man  could 
foresee  which  you  have  encountered  and  mastered.  Their  ver¬ 
dict  is  already  written ;  it  has  been  agreed  upon  at  the  firesides 
of  the  land  and  has  been  molded  in  the  schoolhouses,  the  places 
of  worship,  and  wherever  Americans  meet  to  talk  over  the  af¬ 
fairs  and  good  of  their  country.  That  verdict  leaps  forth  from 
almost  every  American  heart  in  undying  gratitude  to  you  for 
the  service  you  have  rendered,'  for  the  peace,  prosperity,  and 
happiness  your  leadership  has  given,  and  I  but  voice  this  day 
the  overwhelming  wish  of  Americans  everywhere  for  your  tri¬ 
umphant  reelection. 

This  great  convention  which  nominated  you  was  neither  con¬ 
trolled  nor  intimidated  by  any  un-American  or  foreign  influence. 
It  had  the  heart  beat  and  spoke  the  true  sentiment  of  our 

country. 

A  committee  composed  of  the  p&rmanpnt  chairman  of  the  con¬ 
vention  and  one  delegate  from  each  State  and  Territory  was 
appointed  to  inform  you  of  your  selection  as  the  nominee  of  the 
Democratic  Party  for  President  of  the  United  States  and  to  re¬ 
quest  you  to  accept  it,  and  the  convention  did  me  the  honor  to 
make  me  chairman  of  this  committee  charged  with  such  a  happy 
mission. 

Therefore,  in  compliance  with  the  command  of  that  conven¬ 
tion,  this  committee  performs  that  pleasing  duty,  and,  as  the 
appointed  agent  of  that  great  national  Democratic  convention,  I 
hand  you  this  formal  letter  of  notification,  signed  by  the  mem¬ 
bers  of  the  committee,  accompanied  by  a  copy  of  the  platform 
adopted  by  the  convention,  and  upon  that  platform  I  have  the 
honor  to  request  your  acceptance  of  the  tendered  nomination. 
And,  on  behalf  of  the  Democrats  of  the  whole  Republic,  who  are 
proud  of  your  great  administration,  we  pledge  you  their  enthu¬ 
siastic  and  united  support,  and  our  prayer  is  that  God,  who 
blesses  the  peacemaker,  may  guide  you  to  a  glorious  victory  in 
November. 

59827—16473 


A 


O 


